Baby’s first Christmas. We just got back from a long weekend in Illinois with my family. Ben became well versed at being passed around with Grandma and Grandpa and so many aunties and uncles to hold him. I often found myself walking around from room to room asking “Where’s my baby?”  I knew full well he was fine, I just needed to listen for the laughter and there he was.

It was a time of many first traditions. He had his first taste of pepparkokar, a Swedish ginger cookie, a recipe passed down through the generations. His first full listen to Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown Christmas CD. And his first Christmas surrounded by loved ones.  

He loved the lights, the colorful ornaments, and playing with his cousins. Then came present time. A blur of cousins, squeals, clamshell packaging and commotion. And oh the wrapping paper. Ripping, crumpling and averted attempts at ingesting it. As everyone always says, babies seem to love the packaging more than the actual present inside. But then came the drum. It was a clear drum full of (surpisingly quiet) infant musical toys.  A tambourine, jingling bells, shaker toys, a xylophone and drumsticks. He played and played with the various instruments until his eyelids got heavy.

After all of the commotion and excitement died down he fell asleep in Grandma’s arms. Peter and I carried our little drummer boy up the stairs to my childhood bedroom. In the dim light we saw an ear to ear grin cross his sleeping face. As I lowered him down into the crib, his eyes still closed deep in a dream, he started to giggle profusely. I don’t know if it was visions of sugar plums, but there were definately sweet memories dancing in his head.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 26th, 2006 at 11:26 am and is filed under Family Life, Holidays, Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.